Florence/Brescia [Italy]: Update on repression against the anarchists (01/2017)

FLORENCE: Raids carried out following the explosion of a device at “Il Bargello” [neo-nazi] bookshop. 1st January 2017 at around midday the Digos of Florence turned up at three flats in the city and a house in the province of Prato. They searched the homes and cars of those who were there, looking for weapons and explosives. They found nothing apart from one instance, where they seized electrical material (cables, switches, bulbs) and various items (computers, ‘bormioli’ glass jar lids, beeswax…)

Five people were taken to the forensic unit in Florence where they were photographed and fingerprinted; after several hours in the police station they were requested to do a swab test on their hands to detect traces of explosive material. Four people agreed to it, whereas one of them refused so the police decided to seize the jacket they were wearing. At 8pm all five were released with investigation reports showing negative results.

The search of the house in the province of Prato also went on for a long time, followed by a clumsy attempt by the forensic police (who went there after the Digos of Prato and Florence) to do swab tests to look for traces of gunpowder on the hands of those being investigated. The cops wanted to do the test in the middle of a wood using cotton wool from an envelope that had already been opened. At their refusal to submit to the test, the four people were taken to Prato police station where – besides the material already seized – their coats were also taken.

Charges being considered by the investigators are attempted murder, serious bodily harm and fabrication and transport of an explosive device. So far no one is known to have been declared under investigation.

BRESCIA: From the media of the regime we learn that after a year of investigation prosecutors from Brescia have put two anarchist comrades under investigation. They have been charged with attack with intents of terrorism and possession and fabrication of explosives, article 280, following an attack on the Polgai police training centre in Brescia, which took place in the night between 17th and 18th December 2015 with a bomb made with eight kilograms of gunpowder. The device caused damage to the door of the building. The attack was claimed by the anarchist comrades of Cellula anarchica acca (C.A.A) in affinity with the black international, and was in response to a BLACK DECEMBER call for action.

We are not interested in knowing who are the guilty or the innocent.

We stand close to Juan and Manu, as we are aware that any anarchist action makes cracks in the walls that dominion erects in order to restrain us inside as well as outside.